Sheriff Bonner forms civilian committee as part of police reform
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner is forming a civilian committee to offer input on hiring of deputies as part of police reform efforts.
There are 58 article(s) tagged police reform:
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner is forming a civilian committee to offer input on hiring of deputies as part of police reform efforts.
Three police reform measures cleared the Shelby County Commission on the first of three readings this week. But it amounted to a test vote with more votes in play than were committed. Our commission scorecard shows where the division is on the specific issues.
On “Behind The Headlines,” Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. also said he sees an “appetite” for reform among law enforcement in general but has some hesitation about trying to codify reform measures he’s taken to apply to future sheriffs.
“We have one of the best police forces in the country. As we reimagine police work, we have a responsibility as citizens to remember our part in creating a civil society.”
The trio of ordinances affecting the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and corrections officers advanced automatically in Monday’s first of three votes on the measures. A second reading will be held in two weeks and a third is tentatively set in October.
Shelby County Commissioner Van Turner has seen first hand the impact of violent crime on his commission district which includes Hickory Hill. But Turner says it’s possible to back law enforcement and be opposed to a militarization of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and Memphis Police Department.
The three ordinances are scheduled for the first of three votes on Monday. And still to weigh in on the proposals is Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner.
The pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church thinks the first part of Mayor Jim Strickland’s effort to reform the Memphis Police Department didn’t go far enough.
The proposal would ban the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office from getting camouflage uniforms and bayonets from surplus federal military stocks as well as militarized and weaponized vehicles or aircraft.
The council has two final votes scheduled as part of its ongoing discussion of police reform and a discussion of a third measure to create an online portal for the public to see some details of complaints of police misconduct.
Word of the commission comes the same week that a federal task force shot and wounded a teenager while serving a warrant in a case of mistaken identity.
Council members Michalyn Easter-Thomas and Chase Carlisle were on opposite sides of the council's veto override vote on police residency this week. On "Behind The Headlines" they talked about how many police are enough and how to get to the bigger issues beyond the numbers in the ranks.
The City Council Scorecard also looks at a police reform measure that fell short of seven votes and failure of Graceland's plan to open a manufacturing plant with a vocational school in Whitehaven.
The veto and override came on a full day of council discussion and debate about police reform in general, including a vote on a resolution opposing the presence of the federal Operation LeGend in the city and U.S. Attorney Michael Dunavant's meeting with the council.
Meanwhile, Mayor Jim Strickland says public sentiment will probably have to resolve the differing views on what police reform in Memphis means two week after the council took a residency referendum off the November ballot. The proposed amendment was part of a push to increase the size of the police force.
The scorecard highlights a pivotal vote in the police reform debate and why both sides in the discussion still have separate paths to pursue.
Two proposals with common political ground were before the council Tuesday.
The competing items are both up for discussion at an afternoon council committee session with a final vote by the council later Tuesday on doing away with the November ballot question that would allow police officers to live outside Shelby County.
Phyllis Betts and Richard Janikowski have set a new bar for growing the Memphis Police Department ranks to 2,800. They talked on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast about calls for more police amid calls locally for changing the fundamentals of policing and even the share of government funds devoted to policing.
Two proposals on the city council agenda Tuesday would change the rules for naming and renaming streets, parks and other places. It's part of a slate of council proposals that has grown larger than police reform to include changing city government priorities. The effort is being led by a renaming of one of the most well-known addresses in the city.
Memphis City Council member talks on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast about her push to remove from the November ballot a residency referendum that would allow police and firefighters to live outside the county.
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, City Council member Worth Morgan talks about his possible move to take police out of the city's civil service system and calls a move to cancel the November referendum allowing the city to hire police from outside Shelby County "the ultimate hypocrisy."
Mayor Jim Strickland’s reform discussions are continuing, he said Wednesday, but critics of the belief that more cops means less crime have become more vocal since the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd on Memorial Day.
Memphis City Council members also got their first look Tuesday at how much police have spent in the past four years on overtime and riot gear as well as other preparations to handle protests.
African American clergy call for residency requirement for public safety to be taken off the November ballot. They don't think the measure will help bring about the police reform for which they are pushing.